Friday, October 11, 2013

Lala-Pony-Palooza Month: "Cake Family Babysitting Fun" Playset Review

Most of you are probably aware of the My Little Pony "Blind Bags" that have been in stores since 2010. Priced at around $2 each, the blind bags each have a small, all-plastic pony inside of their packaging. The pony is a surprise until the package is opened, hence the name "blind bag". For an excellent visual summary of all of the blind bag releases up to this point, you can check out the My Little Wiki page about them HERE.

In the summer of 2012, three "Miniature Collection" blind bag-sized playsets were released. Each set featured three ponies that went along with a theme or referred to a specific episode. Several other sets have been released since then.

One of the more recent releases from Hasbro is the "Cake Family Babysitting Fun" playset. Unlike the previous blind-bag sized pony collections, which typically included three figures (aside from a few store-exclusive large sets), this set has six pony figures.

The Cake Family set is based off of the 13th My Little Pony episode from Season 2, "Baby Cakes". In this episode, Pinkie Pie agrees to "foal sit" for Mr. and Mrs. Cake's month-old twins, Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake. She quickly discovers that being a caregiver for baby ponies is a lot more work than she thought!

The set is regularly $14.99, but I found mine at Big Lots for $12. :)

Here's a closer look at the characters:

And a few box details:

The back of the box.

Each playset usually has a short summary of the episode the characters are featured in, as we saw with the "Midnight in Canterlot Pony Collection". This time, however, I know that the summary is accurate. ;)

A closer look at the Cake family. Other collectors have commented on the sudden odd obsession Hasbro has with the word "Dazzle". Characters who have never had Dazzle in their name have suddenly been renamed. Mrs. "Dazzle" Cake, for instance, has always been either just plain "Mrs. Cake" or Mrs. Cup Cake. She is even labeled as "Mrs. Cup Cake" in my "Elements of Harmony" guide book, seen below:

Diamond Tiara is another pony who is now called Diamond Dazzle Tiara in the playsets but referred to by her original name in the book. I know there's at least one other pony that has been "be-dazzled" as well, but I can't think of which specific one at the moment. :}

Anyway, that was your random MLP trivia for the day. ;) Moving on.

I also found it interesting that Mrs. Cake appears to have lost her ear in this picture, much like Princess Celestia was missing her tail in the artwork on the Midnight in Canterlot set (which I didn't even notice until two of my readers pointed it out). :}

Artwork of Nurse Redheart (who incidentally has about a two minute role in the episode) and Pinkie Pie.

All of the figures were just held in place by the plastic except for Mrs. Cake, who also had a pink twistie-tie attached to her tail.

Here are all of the characters free from the packaging.

The Cake family.

Adorable Pound Cake (left) and Pumpkin Cake (right). This was another of my sets with a smudgy problem...you can see the little smudge on Pound Cake's cheek.

Thankfully, it came right off.

Pumpkin and Pound Cake from the other side.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake. I really love their designs and fun coloring.

A view from the front.

Nurse Redheart

Pinkie Pie

This is a great little set for MLP fans. I love it that Hasbro is starting to release some of the secondary characters from the show in their blind bag-sized line. They're super fun to collect because they're so small. I also love the fact that these mini ponies are more accurate to the TV show than their larger counterparts. Plastic manes and tails lend themselves much better to the original character designs than manes and tails made of real hair. ;)

This set was just recently released and is still available in stores. I've seen it in Target, Big Lots and Toys R Us so far.

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About Me

I'm a stay-at-home mom with 3 little girls, happily married for 13 years to my high school sweetheart, and most importantly, a Christian. I love singing in my church, spending time with my family, and fixing up TLC dolls. I'm also hoping to eventually become a published author, but we'll see what the Lord has planned.
The other blog contributors on my team are Tess, Maggie, and Emma, my 18" dolls who write on "Jane Austen and Unicorns" about their adventures, and Belle, my 12" Disney fashion doll who shares her life stories on "Belle's Bulletins".